Thursday, December 31, 2009

I sincerely wish each and everyone of you a blessed, prosperous, and healthy New Year. I hope it is one where countries can resolve their differences and wars will cease. I pray families resolve their differences and stay together and that children are upheld as the blessings they are. I hope the economy which has caused so much harm to so many can resurge and become vigorous again. I hope we can find the cures to the worst diseases and most of all, I wish this country to return to "under God" and realize that He is the center of all good things. Say one small daily prayer for peace and justice and maybe it will happen. I also want to take this time to thank all of you who have become friends and my regular readers for your good wishes and encouragement. You brighten my day immeasurably. Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Here's my first card using my Cricut and A Child's Year. I think this cartridge is the best they have out. The images are just so evocative of past times. I edged the cut out with a dark red to give it a little definition and added perfect pearls along the MS border. The DP is SU.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Well the big day has come and gone....as it does every year. Did you go bargain shopping this morning? I made a quick stop at Mike's and JoAnn's and found that the prices of holiday merchandise anyway was the same as it was before Christmas. The craft stores gave such deep discounts prior to Christmas that they were the same today. Mike's had Cricut Carts on sale but none I wanted. Sniff, sniff. Anyway, I'm still playing as you can see. Enjoy a calm and relaxed weekend everyone!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Is this not cool? Click to make the picture larger and you can even see the reindeer's smiling faces. Save your pennies, find a sugar daddy, get a job, whatever it takes....but get yourself one of these if you don't have one. It is such a great toy!

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are having a wonderful day and that you feel the peace of the season.........and that Santa was good to you. You can see how good he was to me, the old elf! My three children went together and got me all that you see in the picture. I couldn't wait to use it and cut two very intricate snowflakes quick as a wink! This is a wonderful machine and I am going to have loads of fun with it. I knew they were getting the Cricut but I didn't know all about the extras and I was floored.

Drop me a line and let me know how good Santa was to you! My family will be here today for ham and all the fixins! Meanwhile I'll be playing..............

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

I know the next 48 hours are crazy for most people so I want to take the moment now and wish all of you a very merry CHRISTmas and a joyful and blessed New Year. This is my tree filled with all vintage glass ornaments from my parents, my in laws, and some 40 year old ones we purchased when the kids were little. I hadn't had a tree for about five years. I have been the quintessential Bah Humbug person. This year, for some reason unknown to me, I have really gotten into the spirit. I choose to think my recently deceased brother has something to do with it! Who knows. I miss my loved ones who are with the Lord more at this time of the year than ever. But life goes on, doesn't it? May the light of the Christ child shine brightly in your hearts and may He bring the spirit of Christmas into your home and your life all year.

So here we are, like most of the East Coast, getting pummeled by snow. It's so windy, the snow appears to be coming down horizontally! One pic is from my front door and the other is of the deck and rear yard. Wherever you are I hope you're warm and snug!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

What a challenge this was! I had no grungepaper. Had grungeboard but that's too thick so I just used SU cardstock. For the first time I don't think the roses are bad. What a fitting finish though! Tim really gave us a workout but I learned so much. I'm thinking now of going back to the past two years and doing the tags from then. I'll miss the daily challenge! Hope you enjoyed seeing the tags. Have a great weekend.

I'm doing an end of the year MAJOR clean up of my studio and I have some stamps I have to part with in order to contain all my "junk" in this one room. The following is a list of the sets I have. I am pricing them all at $5 to get rid of them which is a bargain price. All sets are boxed, except one. If you would like a scan of the sets (a picture of the stamps) I'd be glad to send it to you. Just send me an email or comment. You could ship several sets for one price with Priority Mail. Most of these stamps have only been used a few times. Many have never seen ink!

Lexicon of LoveHappy HarmonyMeasure of a LifeMorning SoftMake a WishCause for CelebrationGently FallingBig Bold Birthday

All the stamps and their wood mounts are in great condition. I take care of my stamps very well. If anyone is interested, let me know. I also have some Sizzix dies ( older ones) if anyone is interested. Come on.....buy em up!!!

I didn't have the cool new tool that Tim used to make brads for this tag or the reindeer stamp. So I just improvised as I have done so often on these tags. I'm really pleased with the colors on this one. Only one more to go!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

OK Tim's tag today was covered with metal, literally. But he was reminiscing about old glass ornaments, of which I have quite a few from parents and family. I couldn't replicate the metal but I did give a good try on the colors. I backed the tag with a vintage music sheet, then used grungeboard letters and MS glitter as well as some other metallic accents in the form of fancy brads and a metal snowflake. When done I spritzed it all with Glimmer Mist Mistletoe. Take it or leave it! Have a great evening everyone.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

I think this is about the closest I've come to one of Tim Holtz' tags. My daughter had just given me the film strip for my birthday. I did have a label maker but my tape was white and I didn't think that would look good so instead I used a K&Co. chipboard piece. And BTW, the little girl on Santa's lap front and center just happens to be little ole me!

Monday, December 7, 2009

It's very dreary here today with melting snow and gray skies. I have a pot of home made turkey soup on the stove and here I am trying my darndest to do this tag. My white flourish didn't show like it was supposed to and the sentiment I embossed in gold at the bottom isn't very readable. It wasn't as bold as the one Tim used. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this tag. I made my own mask for the face with the large santa stamp and that was really cool. Onward and upward!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

This one is going to be a do over. Background turned out great and I used the truck from Loads of Love and instead of flocking I used Perfect Pearls on the tree. At the last minute when it was all done I spritzed with Silver Glimmer Mist and it made the distress inks run. Where was my head? I should have known that. Anyway, here's Day 6 with all its warts!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

This is my interpretation of Day 5. I used an evergreen spray in the upper right corner and for trim, instead of German dresden trim, I used a MS punch from gold paper! I am loving the soft red color of Aged Mahogany distress ink. It's like a beautiful rose and when mixed with some gold it's gorgeous. For the ornaments I popped on some K&Co. trims and the JOY is a MS stamp. Be sure to check out Tim's blog. It is full of ideas and I know Sherry Cheever is following along with this tag challenge as well. Lots of fun!

Well it's SNOWING to beat the band here and I got caught up with my Tim Holtz tags. I should say Tim Holtz inspired tags because I did not have all the doo dads he has available to me so I did my own thing. This is day 4 with the collaged background and then I used this huge button with a rhinestone bauble on the end as the centerpiece. Not as fancy as Tim's but it serves the purpose and I am having fun with this challenge!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

I have Sharon Johnson to thank for this inspiration. She did one of these on her blog last year and I wanted to try it and never go to it. So I finally made time the other day and it was great fun to put together. This would be a great little gift for someone. Make a special box for it! I used Real Red and various designer papers, stamps and punches. I couldn't photograph it in its entirety or it would have been too far away. Hope you get the idea. It looks very nice standing on a mantle or windowsill.

Tim showed us two tags today demonstrating this plaid background technique done with alcohol inks. I didn't have his santa stamp but I used this one instead and the other tag which has trees I haven't finished yet. This is so much fun!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

I don't know if you are familiar with Tim Holtz annual 12 days of Christmas Tags. I decided to play along this year, although I can't promise I will be able to do them all but I'm gonna try. I had no snowman stamp....can you BELIEVE that. I wanted to finish so I used this little foam snowman and distressed him up some, along with the star. Everything else I pretty much did as Tim directed. His products are so wonderful. If you want to learn a lot and play along check out Tim's blog http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/. Thanks and have a great evening!

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Mary Puskar

About Me

I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 49 years and have 3 grown children. I come from a family of women who could do everything and was taught the needle arts as a very young child (I could knit in first grade!). I love quilting, zentangle, dollmaking, gardening and am head over heels in love with papercrafting and rubber stamping. Love my grand-dogs. A happy day is a day creating.